Vegoils Palm oil ends lower as investors take profits from 4 days of gains

by **Cals** Wed 22 Jan 2014, 19:14

Vegoils Palm oil ends lower as investors take profits from 4 days of gains

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Reuters

Wednesday, 22 January 2014 19:01

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 22): Malaysian palm oil futures ended lower on Wednesday, snapping four straight days of gains, as investors banked profits after an early-session rise to the highest in more than two weeks.

After rising to 2,597 ringgit in morning trade, the highest level since Jan. 6, the benchmark April contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.5 percent to 2,574 ringgit ($775) per tonne by Wednesday's close.

Total traded volume stood at 32,845 lots of 25 tonnes, slightly below the usual 35,000 lots.

"There's profit-taking going on after prices rose continuously for the past few days," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur. "But prices are still rangebound between 2,550-2,600 ringgit."

A slumping ringgit helped drive the early buying by making the ringgit-denominated palm futures cheaper for overseas investors. A weak ringgit also boosts margins for refiners.

The ringgit fell as much as 0.3 percent in early Wednesday trade, but later recovered most of its losses as investors covered short positions ahead of potential intervention from Malaysia's central bank.

Sluggish exports in January have weighed on prices, pushing them lower by more than 3 percent so far this month. But expectations that the ringgit could tumble further may help prop up the market for now, investors said.

"Based on analyst estimates, market players are expecting the ringgit to weaken further to 3.35-3.38 by February. If that happens, there could be a recovery in demand," a trader with a local commodities brokerage told Reuters.

Technicals show that Malaysian palm oil is expected to break resistance at 2,588 ringgit per tonne and then rise to 2,611 ringgit, according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

Top producer Indonesia's decision to slash its crude palm oil export tax to 10.5 percent for February has increased competition with Malaysia and may channel some demand away from the second-largest producer, according to market participants.

Some traders said major buyers such as India - the world's biggest palm oil consumer - would likely buy from Malaysia, which has maintained its export tax for crude palm oil at 5.0 percent.

"Indonesia's move to reduce the CPO tax was initially taken as bearish for prices. But even if that happens, assuming India wants to buy CPO, they will still prefer Malaysia in terms of logistics and quality," the trader with the local commodities brokerage said.

In other markets, Brent futures rose above $107 a barrel on Wednesday as outlook reports indicated global oil demand will
rise more quickly this year due to accelerating economic growth
in industrialised countries.

In other competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for March fell 0.5 percent in late Asian trade, adding pressure to benchmark palm prices. The most active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange lost 0.2 percent.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1015 GMT

Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High Volume
MY PALM OIL      FEB4    2555   -14.00    2552    2580     542
MY PALM OIL      MAR4    2565   -12.00    2556    2588    6057
MY PALM OIL      APR4    2574   -13.00    2563    2597   14439
CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY4    5866   -36.00    5858    5920 394544
CHINA SOYOIL     MAY4    6662   -14.00    6630    6688 439190
CBOT SOY OIL     MAR4   37.93    -0.17   37.80   38.30    5830
NYMEX CRUDE      MAR4   95.60    +0.63   95.12   95.71   10420

Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel

($1=3.32 Malaysian ringgit)